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I’m currently watching on Netflix the documentary series The Vietnam War by the rightfully acclaimed
American film-maker Ken Burns.

I recommend it to anyone who, like me, swiftly realises upon watching it how little they knew of that conflict. One of the episodes deals with the shooting down and capture by the North Vietnamese of US Navy pilot John McCain.

During his five-year captivity he was subjected to torture that left him with permanent disabilities. Following his release he continued to serve in the forces before retiring a few years later to go into politics.

He became a US senator and died last week, aged 81. Despite his own traumatic experience of it, McCain always seemed rather too willing to see the US go to war, particularly disastrously in Iraq in 2003 when he was among the most ardent supporters of George W Bush’s decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Only in a book published this year did he admit that the war had been a mistake. But McCain’s was a distinguished life and it also inadvertently provided perhaps the most compelling evidence of Donald Trump’s boorish gracelessness.

After McCain criticised Trump’s supporters during the 2016 presidential election, the then candidate, who avoided the Vietnam draft, observed of him: “He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Never was there a clearer case of a comment saying more about the person who uttered it than the one to whom it was directed.

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No one plays a more believable and chilling villain than Kevin Spacey, whether in The Usual Suspects, Seven or the TV series House Of Cards, pictured. But those high points of his career are long gone.

The actor’s latest movie Billionaire Boys Club is said to have taken a recordbreaking low of just $126 (£98) on its opening night in US cinemas. It was the last film Spacey made before accusations of sexual assault against him surfaced.

As his role was a minor one its release went ahead, with the distributors saying in a statement that they hoped the “distressing allegations” would “not tarnish” the film’s reception.

I have no idea what sort of man Kevin Spacey is but they’ve already tarnished him despite the fact that his alleged crimes – like those people referred to as his “victims” – are still just that: alleged.

He has yet to be charged with anything let alone convicted. Airbrushing people from history without a fair trial used to be the preserve of totalitarian systems.

No-deal Brexit is now firmly established (Image: GETTY )

No-deal Brexit confirmed

So now we know what will happen in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The Government published various technical notices last week laying out the scenarios. And none of them was exactly blood-curdling, as was immediately obvious from the BBC and ITN coverage, both of which are always anxious to find the doomsday angle on us leaving the EU.

There were lots of vague references to more “red tape” without specifics, something about expat Britons in the EU perhaps temporarily losing access to UK bank accounts and facing higher charges on credit cards.

And my favourite: tobacco companies might have to find an alternative source for the scary photographs found on their cigarette packets because the current ones are the copyright of the European Commission. Oh no! How will we cope?

Meanwhile, there was another scare story, this time about the Grand National being ruined next year if there’s no deal, because Irish trainers might not be able to bring their horses over.

I’d say the odds on the Irish not being a bit more resourceful than that are pretty long. Just the latest example of us all being taken again for mug punters…